Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 108: Dan Aykroyd (Bonus Episode)

Episode Date: June 26, 2021

Surprise! While we’re in the off season, here’s a very special – and very different – bonus episode. Ed and James speak to an actual Ghostbuster and Blues Brother – Dan Aykroyd. Dan kindly agreed to be on the podcast to promote his vodka brand, Crystal Head – and he sure is passionate about it.We’ll be back properly for series 6 in a few weeks, but for now, bon appétit!Crystal Head Vodka was founded by Dan Aykroyd in 2008. For Pride month 2021, the brand launched their new Pride Edition Magnum in partnership with Kaleidoscope Trust in the UK to support LGBTQ+ rights worldwide. Available at £140 from Selfridges.com.Recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, listeners of the Off Menu podcast. It is Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu podcast. I have a very exciting announcement. I have written my first ever book. I am absolutely over the moon to announce this. I'm very, very proud of it. Of course, what else could I write a book about? But food. My book is all about food. My life in food. How greedy I am. What a greedy little boy I was. What a greedy adult I am. I think it's very funny. I'm very proud of it. The book is called Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy. And it's coming out this October, but it is available to pre-order now, wherever you pre-order books from. And if you like my signature, I've done some signed copies,

which are exclusively available from Waterstones. But go and pre-order your copy of Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy now. Please? Welcome to the Off Menu podcast, picking up the doughnut of chat and licking off the sugar of humour from your dirty little fingers. Hello, James A. Caster. Hello, Ed Gamble. How are you today? Very well. Thank you, James A. Caster. Bit of a bonus ep, a B ep today. And you know what that means? No one can complain about it because it's a bonus. I think that's the rules, isn't it? Yes. If it's a bonus ep. I mean, really, and I'll say this now, no one can complain about it anyway because it's a free podcast. Yes. But especially today, as it's a bonus.

Yes. If you're expecting certain things from it, you might not get them and that's fine. Yes. And do you know what? Anything that you expected that you didn't get, we expected to, and we didn't get them, and we were doing the podcast. And we were doing it. So that doesn't matter. Don't make it all about you. And sometimes, not getting what you expect is actually quite a lot of fun if you just decide to go with it anyway. You just sit back and relax and go, oh, I expected this to be a guest coming into the dream restaurant and saying what their favorite ever starter main course dessert side dish and drink. And that's why every single episode of the Off Menu podcast is. And listen, it's not not that. It's not not that. So keep that in mind.

That's the bare minimum that we promise someone doing their dream meal. We have a special guest come in and they describe their dream meal. And our special guest today in this bonus episode is Dan Ackroyd. Dan Ackroyd. Dan Ackroyd, Ghostbuster, Blues Brother, Dan Ackroyd. Yeah. My girl, driving Miss Daisy, he's been in all sorts of stuff. Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters. I mean, look, his legacy is completely, that is secured. Yes. And also, not only that, he also has a vodka. I don't know if he'll bring it up. So let's plug it now. Yes. Crystal head vodka. They've just released a crystal head for pride in a rainbow crystal head bottle. Looks wonderful. And you know, we wanted to talk to Dan Ackroyd about food

because of crystal head. And look, we've already recorded the episode. We know what happens. I'm looking forward to you hearing it. It's, you know, there's every now and again, we release an episode. And I think not only would I like to be in the room when people that I know are listening to it, I would like to be in the room when everyone listens to this episode. I would like to see everyone's reactions to it. And I hope you enjoy it as much as we genuinely enjoyed this. We had a brilliant time. The thing is, there was no way I wasn't going to enjoy this. It's actual Dan Ackroyd. We were so buzzed to speak to him. Yes. He really knows his food. He obviously knows his vodka. The other thing I will say at the top of this is this was

not a paid branding opportunity from his vodka company. It is very important that people know that. Hashtag not an ad. Hashtag just a chat. But we often have people on promoing their wares, access comedians, that sort of stuff. And at the beginning, we have to force a plug-in because they really don't want to talk about what they're doing. They just want to chat about, just do the podcast. We didn't have to do that with Dan. This is not a sponsored episode. No. We haven't received any money from crystal head. Not spawn. And also, all this chat now, I really liked him. And it was really fun. Yes. So I hope you enjoy it. But it's not necessarily the traditional back-and-forth interview format that you're used to on off-menu.

All we're doing is trying to impress upon you that it isn't what you're used to and that this isn't a branded episode. We loved it. We had a great time. I think he had a good time. I hope so. Dan, if you're listening, I hope you had a great time. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Enjoy it. Treat it for what it is, a bonus episode with a genuine bona fide legend. Secret ingredients. Oh, ectoplasm. It's ectoplasm. Yeah, ghostbusters. Note the date and the time. Know where you were when you heard this episode. Strap in because the menu's coming at you thick and fast. It's the off-menu menu of Dan Ackroyd. Dan Ackroyd.

Welcome, Dan Ackroyd, to the Dream Restaurant. Hello, Ed. Hello, James. Wow. Welcome, Dan Ackroyd, to the Dream Restaurant. I've been expecting you for some time. The Dream Restaurant would be, let's think of it as Canada, my home in the summer, because we have a log cabin there. I run luggage from the station in back. I'm a luggage mule all summer. It's as if it's a resort or a hotel. We've had some really great chefs in there, David Agi out of Toronto, Ben DeForest out of Martha's Vineyard. They have served up incomparable feasts. I've prepared the evening. I'll tell you about the evening and the meal that we would have at the Dream Restaurant. Let's call it Loon Lodge. Loon Lodge. Dan, I think this is the first time I

think we've done maybe 107 episodes of this. This is the first time someone's come straight in with a name for their Dream Restaurant. Yes. Well, it would be my home. You see, my Dream Restaurant would be my home. Of course, I love Ken and Bex down there, where Ben DeForest works in Martha's Vineyard. And there's so many restaurants. A new one opening up, Vella here in Toronto, the Johnny Goodman's place. Not John Goodman, the actor, but the entrepreneur, Johnny Goldman, I mean. So, you know, that connection with the fine chefs and purveyors of great food over the years has served me well. And I have thrown many a party. So the Dream Restaurant would be Bear's Head Cabin, Loon Lodge, the Bear's Head Lounge, and then moving on to the formal dining, outdoor dining

porch. We're talking outdoors, are we, Dan? It's greened in, yes. Take us through the scene in front of you. Okay. So the scene would be, we're talking probably serving about 20 good friends, and we would be, I would be sending the 1932 V12 Piercero 1604 limousine to pick them up. They would pull up to the cabin. They would be greeted with my bar staff serving a barcar martini, that's the crystal head two and a half ounces of it, shaken with ice chips and into a tumbler glass with ice, with a rind of lemon or pearl onion or olive. Along with that would be a setting of pecorino and stilton with red pepper jelly. Could I just say this is the, normally we have to tease these things out of people, and you are so ready to get into the food. Normally, we may be asked

some general questions about whether, you know, you've been a foodie for a long time. If you always love food, did you grow up with food around you? Oh, we can sure. Well, I think, I think if we go through the dream meal, you'll see, and you can stop me anytime or, or, you know, ask me once we've gone through it. They'd arrive in the V12, they would have a barcar martini served to them, very clean vodka that we serve, of course, no additives, crystal head is a no additive product, then the pecorino and stilton with red pepper jelly, cards, table water, crackers, olives, little cocktail pickles, and, and maybe some pearl onions again. So then we would move into the screened in porch, which overlooks the, the cliff on the lake that the old family farm is on

there. And we would move on to a pappardelle pesto as a sort of also a secondary appetizer. I love a good pesto. I search the world for pesto and pappardelle noodles, to me, the best noodles to use with, with pesto. Now, I don't cook at all. You can, I can barely take a piece of toast and put it in a coat hanger and get it to brown. I don't cook at all. So, but I do appreciate good food. And the skill of some of the people we've had working at the farm over the years is, is quite outstanding. So we'd have the barcar martini, the pecorino stilton, red pepper jelly with the cards, table water, crackers, olives, pickles, and onions. We know we move on to the pappardelle pesto. And in the summer, there's nothing in Canada like a mixed grill. So that would be baby

lamb chops with mint jelly, a t-bone steak with au jus and fresh grated horseradish, how lemon half chicken skin on, and that would be on a, on a fairly nice big gas or charcoal broiler. And then to accompany that, of course, Yorkshire pudding with gravy and peas, Brussels sprouts with maple glaze. You know, we have Canadian maple syrup here, the best in the world. And then we'd move on to garlic mash and rosemary roasted potatoes in there as part of the cooking. And that would all be served together. So I'm not eating fish these days because I think, you know, they're disappearing fast. So it would be chicken lamb chops, a t-bone. And then after that, we would have a chopped Caesar salad, not cheesy, more lemony than cheesy, you know,

chopped up. And all along the way, of course, we'd be serving the finest chateau margot, red for red, and the palmire white. It's a great vineyard there in California, a lovely chardonnay that they make very kind of viscous and oaky and really neat to drink with food. So, and by the way, I'm not paying for this meal. I would get someone, I figure a promotion to get my, the company in Toronto to pay for it. This is Dan, this is your dream meal. You don't have to pay for it. You know, we've got James is our genie waiter. He can magic anything up you like. So you know, this is all on us. All right, good. The Caesar salad, and then the margot and the palmire served along the way for dessert. We would have an espresso martini with the crystal head again, no additives to make

an award-winning drink. We just won another award with our Onyx bottle right here. Enjoy soldiers. This is our Onyx. This is a blue Weber agave vodka. This is a piano finished bottle. Blue Weber vodka, of course, is what they make tequila out of. We do a vodka distillation and filtration treatment on it. And so we'd have that in an espresso martini. And that would be accompanied by dessert of a mocha d'acquoise, lemon squares, a black velvet cake, a black forest cake. And then to those who wanted an Arturo Fuente cigar with a Chateau Iquem, a beautiful sauté, right? Or brandy or whiskey, a Mission Signal Hill whiskey out of Canada is a lovely brand. A nice whiskey, a brandy, you know, something as a digestif. And then in Canada, where it's legal, I would

offer a two gram Chernobyl pre-roll, a sativa blunt with a blue rhino bud and blue crush a keef for those who would want that. And then jugs of warm lemon water as everyone gets up from the porch. Lots of lemon water, jugs. And then the evening's not over because then we go to the fire because it's Canada. We have a massive fire there, a big bonfire. And we will do plain donuts, just plain donuts, but rolled in butter and then grilled with coffee and then Patronexo, the beautiful beverage out of Patronexo for all night dancing, all night partying. This is obviously a dream meal to be accompanied with a party that goes to four, five to dawn, really. This is the kind of entertainment we used to do at the Lune Lodge. And so when you told me to come up with

my dream meal, it wasn't hard. I've had it there. And I wanted to share it with the world through you. We'd have music. The music we would have would be, you know, Sam Moore jamming by the fire with Keith and Ronnie. Yeah. So Dan, I mean, wow, there's a lot to talk about there, especially do bear in mind that our producer is his job during these to write down everything our guest has ordered so James can read their order back to them later. And I'd imagine his hands fallen off because there is so much in there, but it sounds absolutely incredible. Well, I've got a few questions because you talked about the heydays of Lune Lodge. And I was wondering like your 20 guests who you've got for this. Yeah. Are there particular 20 guests you have in mind? Who are the kind

of people you'd love to come along? Absolutely. Bill Murray, Paul Schaefer, Chevy Chase, Lorraine Newman, Jane Curtin, my colleagues from SNL, Lauren Michaels and his family. And then just local friends. And then my family, which is, you know, can run from seven to 12 at any given time. And they've been to all these people have been to your Lune Lodge part is in the past. Yes, they have. They have been and have enjoyed it. They would love this meal. I know my friends well, you know. And now there's no duck in here, no fish or anything, but it's a pretty basic dream meal. The T-bones, you know, you do them right on the grill, you cross-sear them, and then there's an au jus that comes with them that you gather. And not too thick of a T-bone now, about a half

inch, not a big thick. Don't impress me there. I want the half inch cut because it's so much easier to manipulate and it's moist and very tasty in the way they do beef up here around Canada is pretty impressive if you're a meat eater. I'm imagining being a local friend invited to this party and then walking through the door and seeing who else was at the party and being absolutely terrified and turning around. Well, I don't know. Most of my friends here have met that my well-known group from show business and that the well-known group of friends. And, you know, the people that I live with up here and that are around are pretty basic. Nothing impresses somebody from the country up here too much other than, you know, a good rainfall,

a good hay crop, a fine drink around the fire. You know, we take people as they come. The qualification for friendship in my mind is a good heart and not so much fame or accomplishment, but a good heart and spirit. So those are the only people that walk through my doors. So you've talked about one in the T-bone. Now, let's delve into that a bit more. I'd like to know when you realized that was your favorite kind of steak, that was the cut for you. We've had people on this podcast before, Dan, once we had a guest on this podcast, and they chose a steak as their main, but they chose a well-done rump steak and it upsets. Charge up the chainsaw. Whoa, boy. Well, the T-bone because of the bone, the bone, the bone,

there's just, if it's cooked right, the flavor comes through out of that bone. You get a no juice out of it and, you know, the tender loin part, the tender part of it there that you cut away easily is just, it's, it morselizes as if it were chocolate. And then if the other side of it, the longer side is done right, it's very easy to cut and dissolves in the mouth beautifully at a medium well-cooked temperature. Yeah, so I love the T-bone. I fell in love with at the farm before a loon lodge was built, but we just had a couple of shacks there by the lake. We used to throw those T-bones on the grill. We had a Magrere grocer. He would just, you'd come in and he'd you walk in the back and you'd select the slab from where you want them, you know, would cut

right off and they'd be right, you know, from the, from the yard to the butcher to the table in a half day. And then, you know, we'd have these long harvest dinners where we'd have a table for 30 people with picnic tables all lined up. And it was the T-bones then and nothing as elaborate as what I've gone through here. But all was peas and good garlic mashed potato, lots of garlic, you know, like I'll just as a snack, I'll take a pan and I'll take some garlic buds, I'll peel them, I'll put them in there with a little oil just and do them up like nuts and just just eat them. Oh, delicious. Yeah, they're delicious and great for the blood and a healing, very, very healing plant. Oh, how often do you do that? How often do you get some

garlic cloves and cook them up as a snack? I haven't done it in a while. I really should. I did it while I threw a lot of garlic into a pasta the other day that my friend was making. So I chopped some up then, but I need the little pan. I got to get that little pan for doing the garlic nuts. Ben DeForest's restaurant, Ken and Bex, is a world-renowned restaurant because people go to the vineyard as a tourist destination from all over the planet. And Ben does the beautiful garlic buds in the little pan there. And his specialty is pan cooking and it's just, it's really exciting to eat there. Anybody headed to Massachusetts this summer, make sure you get on the ferry early. They just hacked it. The ferry to Martha's Vineyard and from Woods Hole, they hacked into it and the

boats weren't running there for a while, you know, some ransomware outfit. What, they hacked into them and they started controlling them? How do you hack a boat? They hacked them so that their electronic systems weren't working, they couldn't depart from the dock. Oh, wow. And reservation also were shut down. And so I don't know if they paid or not, but this is a world, this is World War Three, what's happening here in the cyber world. And that's why it's comforting food and drink in this world. Very comforting. You know, after, I recommend to your MI6 and to all of your people and intelligence over there in Britain and... They all listen. They all listen to it. Yeah, I know, of course they do. They're gourmas and... They listen to everything, Dan. They're gourmas and,

you know, this is the community that loves fine living because of government expense chips that they can turn in. So I speak to the intelligence community. I say, hang in there, but no, this is the Third World War happening. And so eat and drink well. Here's my MI6 Cosmo. It would be three ounces of the head, egg white and white cranberry juice shaken and put up in a glass, in a martini glass. So that's the hard-working intelligence and counter-terrorist community in England. That's the drink. Do you have a cocktail for every sort of industry? If we gave you an industry, would you be able to name a cocktail that we could make for them? Oh, sure. Tell me, what do you think? Chimney sweeps. Oh, wow. For chimney sweeps, you'd want a nice,

kind of almost like a milky cocktail, something really sweet and milky and clean. I would say, you know, look, the Crystal Head corn, the original one over here. Well, it's in our Pride bottle. Pride month. Happy Pride month. This is our Pride. Oh, wow. Look at that. That's amazing. Our corn is in here. So I would say you'd take the corn and you would take a little, like, Drambue and Nutmeg and some good, good, good milk, just 2% milk, not too thick, and shake that up. And that would kind of almost be like a cold head shake, you know. That's the chimney sweep drink. Yeah. I love it. Yeah, but fine, you know, fine food and wine are, of course, you know, such traditions in all the spy novels that have been written in the movies,

you know. And in England, the UK, your community does that stuff great. And as you see, they're listening to us now. They're listening and they're going to have a cocktail. But you say it's like in the spy novels in, you know, James Bond films as well, of course, he has a vodka martini, shake and not stirred, but a shake and martini is a nightmare, surely. This is what I've heard, that no one who knows that martinis would order a shake and martini down. I disagree. I believe that a shake and martini with the right espresso, certainly, if you want, you want to shake that up. You want to get a nice foam going. You want to get that cocoa, that coffee in there. You want to blend that up because it just comes out the other end,

like a soft cone from Dairy Queen. It's just a treat. The shaker is a beautiful sound, first of all. And if you're going into a bar, it's one of my, first of all, next to the Harley Davidson motorcycle, or train wheels, or the laughter of my children, the sound of a shakey, of a cocktail shaker means fun, it means entertainment. And it means, and the bar chefs can do so much now with shake and martinis that I wouldn't worry about that proviso, but some people are going to hew to that line, and I will make you with either of my beverages, a martini with or without, with just the vodka and maybe lemon, or nothing, or little ice chips. Certainly, I like it with ice, and it will be delicious. I think cocktails are important

in our community as we congregate, as we get back to bars. Bar chefs, cocktails, that world will serve mankind well. If one can consume beverage, alcohol, moderately, you know, food and the drink that goes with, and the food that goes with the drink will be so exciting to share in a congregate community once we get the world back to normal. And did you get vaccinated yet, you guys? I did. I have my second one today. Good, good. I've had both of mine as well. We're both double jabbed. I got all of them. I said, give me, give me all three. I got them in the states. Give me all three. And they said, well, it wouldn't really hurt you. And I didn't get sick.

Little question that I've got to ask, because we've had so much great stuff about the crystal head vodka. And like you clearly, you're working on it very hard. There's loads of stuff you're doing. You're thinking about every single element of it, every element of it, element of the drink, the ingredients, the design, how they work in cocktails. It's on your mind a lot. If I may ask you a Ghostbusters question, and bring in Crystal Head at the end of the Ghostbusters, the first film, Ghostbusters, the first one, you're going to not think of anything. Because if you think of anything, it will materialize. Do you think these days you would think of Crystal Head,

and then you would look down and through the streets has come in a giant skull glass? And how, A, do you think that's what you would think of? And that is what would then attack the city? And B, how would the Ghostbusters defeat it? Man, if I had to go back and be that character right there, I probably would go blank. I wouldn't think of anything because you got to be careful what you wish for. Do you think Crystal Head would just win? Do you think it'd be a very different film? It would be unbeatable. Well, the head is very benevolent, you see. The head has a nice little smile. The head, I mean, it could appear in the sky as sort of a, and rain down good vodka on the crowd in the movie, I suppose, but no, it's not, you know, well, some operators.

Now, the Aztecs were able to operate it for causes of doom and destruction, apparently. But they were mostly known as Crystal Balls in North America and Central America, the indigenous tribes, the Anasazi, the Zuni, the Navajo, the Aztec, the Mayans, they all had a Crystal Head. So it's a benevolent skull, it's a smiling skull. But in its history, I'm sure it was used by operators to call down doom upon enemies and rivals. So the lore goes of the 13 Crystal Heads, which is what we based our design on. Well, in history, the Stave Puffer-Puffer-Mellerman's very nice and friendly. He is part of history. But then at the end, turned up and was extremely, you know, because when he's all thought of it. Yeah, he was, you know, on all the bags in stores

for kids at campfire and was thought of as benevolent. And that's why Stance thought of the most benevolent thing. But you've got to be careful what you wish for. Gotta be careful. Now that we stopped something in Canada called the Angelus Marshmallow Man. He was a cop. The Stave Puff Marshmallow Man was a sailor, if you'll recall. It's a little different. But I based that on the Angelus Man and the Pillsbury-Doboe or the Michelin-Tierman, all cute, pudgy little creatures. Wow, sure. But watch out, they have a bad sight. What do you think is the best profession for someone made entirely of marshmallow? Good question. Would it be a cop or a sailor or maybe another job? Unemployed. Oh, psychiatrist. Because you could just keep peppering them, they'd absorb. Keep

peppering them, they'd absorb. And they wouldn't need a couch, you could just lie on their stomach and talk about your problems. Indeed, indeed. Well, I hope I've helped you here for your project. Is someone actually going to try to cook this meal? Yeah, Benito's going to try and cook it. The thing is, I think it sounds absolutely delicious. I'm concerned that we won't be able to find the right pasta because he said that you travel the world trying to find the best pastos. Well, tell me, find a restaurant in London, find somebody there, run a contest. You know, we run a star tender contest with the skull. You make a recipe and they join our star tender club and we have prizes and awards for bar chefs everywhere. And let's do a pesto.

Let's do a, you know, off the menu pesto contest. That'd be great. Look, I'd absolutely love that. Were you aware, when you came up with the skull idea to put the vodka in the skull, I'm a big, heavy metal fan. Were you aware quite how much you were going to capture the drinking habits of the heavy metal fans? Because it's the only vodka you see in any of these heavy metal places now. Well, that's cool. I'm glad that that community's embraced it. I think we were more looking at just the aspect of it as a vessel that conveyed not so much negative death connotations as positive life giving, enlightening connotations, but we are in biker bars. It's true. We're in heavy metal bars. We work hard to bring the consumer a good experience. I think that's why it's in

all communities, but looks good in a heavy metal bar, looks good in a steakhouse, you know, right, right there. Dan, you know how quite often a celebrity will put their name to a spirit and then they won't really know much about it. They'll just put their name to it. I'm getting the sense that's not what's going on here. I feel like you've invested quite a lot of time in this. Well, I started in the tequila business. I was the agent for Patron Tequila in Canada, so I learned about the business then and about making tequila then, and then I was looking for other categories. Now that's been sold to Bacardi. I'm no longer involved. And then decided let's try to clean up vodka. I didn't like the over viscosity. I didn't like the fact that you opened

a bottle of vodka and it smelled like Chanel number 10 or it didn't smell like anything. I didn't like the cat's tongue taste on some of them. They were rough. You know, if you don't have quality, you don't have a business. Nobody's going to come back and drink it. They're going to say, oh, that's nice. I'll put that on my shelf. I'm not going to crack another one. I thank you. But that's not what happened. And we're in 78 countries with multiple awards and medals. And I'm proud to go around the world and say, hey, it's Canadian. Papadomzo bread. What's that? Papadomzo bread. Dan? Oh, papadom. Oh yeah, papadoms for sure. Actually, you know, I would astute and just kiss goodbye to all Western cooking. Even this meal

I've showed you if I could eat Indian every night. Well, you can change it if you want. Well, well, well, okay. So that would be papadom. That would be sagaloo and sagosh and a great mild vegetarian curry and lots of basmati rice. And let's see the that beautiful chicken that they do the marsala chicken, I would do lots of tandoori have the oven just cooking like three or four birds tandoori style, butter chicken, the doll that right. A few chipatis, maybe a lassi to cool it all off at the end and some ice cream. Yeah, that's that's a dream Indian meal right there. Yeah. Now that's easier for you to do in London, maybe than the monster I've created here for our show.

Would you still have a blunt at the end of your Indian meal? Would there still be a blunt? Oh yes, the blunt. We're legal. We're legal. Yeah. Yeah, I'd offer that to my guests. We're legal. I have trouble smoking it because I get it. It makes me sneeze and I have something going on with the terpenes that does something to my nasal eustachian system. I don't know. With the next step for crystal, maybe remove the terpenes and have like a pure a pure weed brand. Well, Jimmy Belushi is launching the Blues Brothers Working Man's weed brand. And yeah. And so I've granted him Judy and I, Judy Belushi and I've granted him a license to go out and pervade of the market a product that people that's affordable, that high quality affordable. Just think if the if

football leagues like the NFL or the, you know, allow their players instead of going home and popping a pill for a knee injury to smoke something or take some CBD or, or THC CBD. I believe it's in its healing properties. I really do. My dad was on it at the end of his life for anxiety and for sleeping. And we'd give him a few drops there and he'd sleep like a baby and he lived till he was 98. And we gave him some THC too. And he, you know, to help with hallucinations, to enhance them. You said sativa. That's, that's quite a mild strain. Is that correct? Well, I don't know. Maybe after the Indian meal, we'd move to an indica, but the Chernobyl pre-roll is a beautiful product. It's, it's a sativa that's rolled in this beautiful Keef sauce. And

my guests who do indulge enjoy that. And of course, there's no operation of boats or jet skis or motor vehicles after this. We're sitting by the fire while this is going on and everybody can then can go off to the various cabins on the property and go to sleep. So we put everybody up. Everybody that would come that day would be put up at the place. Your dessert sounded delicious. Would you ever consider swapping out the dessert down and replacing it with a cheese board? Well, I had the cheese board at the top with the pepper jelly and the pecorino and the stilton. What would I add to that cheese board? Not, not much. No, I enjoy a good cheese board at the end, but you've got to have your brandy. You've got to have your whiskey out of your brown

spirit there or a Chateau Ikem. But sure, I mean, you know, I love the pecorino and I love this stilton. We have some great Canadian cheddars here, both yellow and white that are, that are wonderful. So maybe, maybe as the fire progresses and people get a little hungry, that's a good idea. I'll bring out an ample cheese board. Bring the cheese back out. Yeah. And then, but then we're going to be, we'll start swilling red wine again. That will be, it'll be three in the morning and we'd be cracking another bottle of Margot or a stag's leap or anything with a saint or an accident. Yeah. We enjoyed a stag's leap together once, didn't we? We did. And I'm literally looking, I can see from where I'm sat, a bottle of stag's leap and a bottle of crystal head.

Oh. So I think, I think we'd have a good night. Oh, no, no, God, we would have a great, great night if we, yeah, we should, we should recreate this at the farm. We're counting that as an invitation, Dan. We're going to, we're just going to show up on your doorstep. We're ready. We're opening up. Ontario's ready. Ontario's ready. Fantastic. We'll show up. Smoke a blunt with Bill Murray. Yes, please. Sure. Sure. I want him to come anytime. He's welcome. He can hide out permanently in my house as far as I'm concerned, but he's a busy man. Thank you so much, Dan. This has been such a delicious menu. It's been fantastic. Thank you. Have you eaten today? Are you now going to go off and eat something? Well, I think I'm going to go

to Shea Piggy's and I'm going to order the spring rolls and the chow chow salad, the Vietnamese style salad with the spring rolls chopped up in it. And also some pita and hummus. And I will have a barcar martini. And then, I don't know what he's doing for a chicken today, but there are magnificent restaurants in this town. Diane's Fish Bar, we've got Atomica Pizza Cafe, Wooden Heads Pizza Cafe. There's a beautiful tapas bar to where a navel and Kingston's quite for the size of the town, 200,000. It's quite sophisticated with food and drink. That's very helpful because we have a website for this podcast. There's a page on the website that is all the bars and all the restaurants that have been mentioned on the podcast and there's links to them. So,

the more that you mention from Kingston, the more that you end up, I think we're kind of like, you know, that page hasn't got much Canadian places at the minute were underrepresented there. So, if you want to mention any other great Canadian restaurants and all that. Well, of course, Illatini in Montreal and Canoe in Toronto and, oh yeah, there's a quite a variety, quite a variety of good spots here and all of them serve the head. Well, I was going to say, if any of our listeners do go to Canada and they want to go and get a head somewhere, a lovely cocktail of the head, where's the best place in Canada where you've personally sat and thank your own product? Well, I would say, where would I go in Toronto

to sit down and have it? Oh, surprisingly, the Hilton Hotel, the bar at the Hilton Hotel. Wow. The guys in there are fantastic. They love the product. They know how to use it, make it all different kinds of ways. I would go there. That's I know I could get a good reliable service on the cocktail there because they've done their research. So, the Hilton in Toronto. Have you ever been anywhere, Dan, where you've had your own product at a bar and you've had to take them aside and go, you're treating this all wrong? Well, first of all, if my product is seen on the bar, I applaud and I immediately deplete the bottle by buying the entire room all around. So, I'll buy them right out of the product and then I will

say, aren't we having fun? Here's the story. Here's why it's so good. Why people enjoy it? I think if I was in a bar and someone came in and they bought the whole room drinks, that would be a big deal for me. I've never had that happen before. I'd be quite excited. Huge. If it then turned out that the person who has bought everyone drinks owns the company that made the drink, that would blow my mind. And if that person on top of that was Dan Akroyd, who then told me about the history of the drink and everything, I think that would be quite a memorable evening. I mean, these people who have experienced this must have afterwards been like, hold on, did that just happen? Well, if you were a bar operator, I would hope for a

placement, permanent placement on the bar. So, yeah, we're honest about it. And we like people have a good time. And it's about laughs and fun. And for bar chefs, it's the only head that can talk to. They throw it up in the ground, in the air, like a basketball. It doesn't break. It's all right. Well, thank you so much for coming on off menu. That's a wonderful menu. Thank you. Well, that was that. We're slightly shell shocked still, I'd say. Well, I didn't even read out the menu back to him. No, because I'd imagine we don't have half the menu written down because Benito's fingers have been worn down to a nub trying to type it, as Dan said it. He definitely tried. Water, jugs of warm lemon water. But that comes at the end

of the meal. The water comes at the end of the meal. Don't forget that. Yes, but we didn't really. That was the only water that was mentioned. So, I guess we can put that in the water course, a warm jug of lemon water and a vodka martini with crystal head. That was at the top. Poppins or bread, he said. Poppins. Yeah, at the end. But that's when he changed it to an Indian meal. So, yes, that was my fault. I hold my hands up making him change it to an Indian meal was my fault. Yeah, but we got a whole Indian meal in there as well. That's nice. Starter, pecorino, still in a red pepper jelly with papadel pesto. That sounds nice. Main. Mixed grill, baby lamb chops with mint jelly, T-bone steak, half inch, horseradish, roasted chicken with

lemon, Yorkshire pudding, gravy peas. James, at what point did you realise he was going to do the whole meal? I think. Was it when I tried to interrupt him? When you tried to interrupt during the pecorino. And it was made very clear to you that that won't be necessary and he carried on. And I thought to myself, this is great. I absolutely love it. I'm going to see how long I can go without talking. And if I make it to the end of the podcast, and all I've said is, Poppins or bread. Welcome to the Dream Restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. That'll be really funny. I mean, definitely during this bit, when it was Yorkshire Puddin's gravy peas, bustle sprouts, garlic mash, rosemary roast potatoes, I was like, this is the whole main.

We're in the whole main already. Side chop sees the salad, drink chardonnay, dessert, mocha, decoise. Decoise, espresso martini with crystal head, a cigar, mission hill whiskey or brandy afterwards. This is afterwards with a two gram Chernobyl pre-rolled blunt. And then to the fire, donuts in butter. That's so good. We didn't even ask him about the doughnuts. The doughnuts in butter sounded amazing. Oh man, James, can I tell you about a doughnut I had the other night? Yeah. I went to a restaurant called Casimir in Bristol and they finished off the meal with sourdough doughnuts rolled in lamb fat and then char grilled and then rolled in salt and sugar. Absolutely phenomenal. I would like to try those very much. I had an absolute nightmare during

that interview. I mean, I didn't have a lot to do, but an Amazon man came knocking and he knocked twice. So you probably heard that in the background and now someone's texting me. And at one point, I was going to literally lean out the window and go, I am interviewing Dan Akroyd. And then for some reason my eyes started weeping. I've got no idea why. It just went bright red, seized up and started weeping. That's what happens if I don't talk for an extended period of time is my brain starts starting to escape through my face. Yeah. Oh, absolute nightmare. All while I was interviewing Dan Akroyd. I feel this is a kind of episode that warrants repeat listens. I think that it will be funny for listeners to listen to it again and know what they're going into the second time round

and just really enjoy that it is quite funny when two podcast hosts just completely lose control of their own podcast and have to just deal with the fact that their whole entire world has changed. And, you know, I think that's fun, especially while, you know, a Hollywood A-lister sells vodka, also driven it as well. And like very high quality vodka. This opportunity that you're not helping by saying things like that, James, I'm going to take this opportunity to say this was not a sponsored podcast. It wasn't sponsored. It was not spawned. We expected Dan to mention his vodka. Sure. We know that there's a lot of time and effort into it. And he's sort of known for it now. But we were not paid for it. We didn't get paid for it. No. No. I'm not even plugged my tour. I

should have plugged my tour. I didn't get one opportunity to plug my tour. And now everyone's going to go and buy a bottle of Crystal Head. The Pride bottle is out now. It looked this beautiful bottle. Yeah. Happy Pride Month. I loved it though. Look, when I was a little kid watching Ghostbusters and obsessed with Ghostbusters, if you had told me that I would grow up one day, I would have a converse. And first of all, you'd have to explain the concept of Zoom and Zoom calls to me. Podcasts? Yeah, and podcasts. Yeah, and podcasts and everything. Let's face it. I'm still not really completely across that. But this man, that man there on the TV, the Ghostbuster, he will talk to you for nearly an hour. Basically, he'll talk to you until he's decided it's time

to stop. Yes. And he will wish you good luck with your project. I hope I helped you with your project. Yeah. He said that half an hour in. I hope I helped you with your project. Yes. And that made me feel ached. Yes. It really put into perspective what we're doing here. Yeah. He's a man who has conquered Hollywood and now has a vodka empire. And he talked to us and goes, I hope I've helped you with your project because whatever it is you two are doing here. I mean, I just loved it. I'll be thinking about that for a long time. Yeah. Ed Gamble got a credit UK for tickets to my tour. Yes, please. Yes. What's the show called? Electric. Electric. Well, he didn't say ectoplasm either. I tell you what as well. When I asked him who was going to be at the meal, I thought about

saying for a joke, is it Bill Murray? Yeah. But it is. They're proper friends. Bill Murray, Lorne Michaels. I'd be absolutely terrified at that. It was nice to see the whole, these buddies of all those people. That was nice. And I don't know. I think I'm going to spend quite a few days reflecting on this. Yeah. Sitting around and just having my mind all drift to it and I'll think about it. Look, shout out to Dan Akroyd. He'd done his prep. Yeah. Sometimes people show up on this podcast and they just go like a chocolate thing. Yeah. Dan, absolutely not. He'd done his prep and he was ready to deliver everything that he'd worked on. This is the longest intro and outro we've ever done and quite rightly. Gotta be. I mean, you know, I think that people tune

into our podcast to hear the guests. But I think also, you know, we play a role in it. And I think we've got to make up for that now. We've got people got to hear our voices enough at the end. And you know, also just be assured as the listener that we are aware of what just happened. Do you want to ask me any questions that you wanted to ask Dan Akroyd or tell any anecdotes that relate to Dan Akroyd now? Well, something I was going to ask Dan Akroyd was, you know, I was going to pick up on the Yorkshire puddings and say, Ed doesn't like Yorkshire puddings. So ongoing thing on the podcast. Can you convert Ed to like Yorkshire puddings? But and it would have been quite impressive to see how the answer to that question

ended up being about crystal head vodka. I mean, do you know what? That's the thing as well. I'm not even, I mean, I really don't want this, these intros and outros to sound like we're making fun of Oh, no, not at all. I genuinely every time he kept bringing up the stuff about the crystal head, I was like, I'm weirdly invested into this. Like he's very passionate about it, really knows his stuff. I was I was hanging on every word. I went to Disney and Universal when I was a kid. Yes. With my friend and his mum and his mum really fancied the man playing Dan Akroyd's Ghostbusters character at Universal. And like we had to follow around the Ghostbusters all day. And she asked she asked him to marry her as a joke. And he looked very uncomfortable.

So I thought maybe we could play around with that. Yeah, we could have told him that that would have been funny. Oh, that would have been good. That didn't happen. I went on a walk with my sister and my nephews recently. And one of the nephews is little boy, ran really far ahead, waited for us for ages for probably 20 minutes just waiting for us. But looking at us the whole time we're walking down the footpath. And then for 20 minutes just staring at us. And then when we got to him, he went, who are you going to call? And then ran away. Great. So, you know, he's constantly done Akroyd inspiring every single generation,

every new generation Ghostbusters is a thing for them becomes a thing. Also, a huge shout out to you, James, for deliberately creating more work for The Great Bonito in putting all those Canadian restaurants on the website. I loved that you did that. Yes, I was really pleased with that and thinking like because it's like an episode where really you would think that no work needed to be done at all. But we got away with hardly doing anything and Bonito is going to be up all night typing all of those up, finding the links to them. He's got so much work to do. I think we should clock off this bonus episode. I hope I've helped you with your project. Let's call it a day. I've had an absolute ball. What a weird afternoon.

And, yeah, I had a great time for context also for the listener. It's an absolutely boiling hot day today. We were thinking surely this is just going to be cancelled because we often have many high-profile guests lined up and they always cancel us a lot of the time. I mean, oh, well, okay. And Dan Akroyd was like, well, surely not. Surely, Dan Akroyd isn't going to do this podcast. And it was so hot and I was like, my brain's not even working. And what I needed really was someone who just took charge, got the job done and then went off to shake piggy. I thought you were talking about me. No, it wasn't me. It wasn't me, sadly. You were sitting there with your eyes weeping at one point out of nowhere.

Half my head was on fire. The Amazon man knocked on the door. All four performance from me. But luckily, Dan was there to take the reins. Ironically, I'm going to go and have a crystal head vodka now. And it is 4.30pm. It's 4.30pm. Series six is going to start soon. Series six will start soon. And you better bet your bottom dollar that we're going to go right back to the normal format. All your favorites. Nothing's going to throw your normal structure. I mean, let's try and get everyone from Ghostbusters on one by one. I wouldn't change a thing, though. I wouldn't change a thing. I can't hammer this home enough. We would not change anything about what just happened. And listen, we've had many great experiences on this podcast.

Loads of weird things. Once we ran a competition where members of the public could come on and have their dream menu. And a very nice man bought the experience for his sister. And it turned out she'd never seen the podcast before, but Fancy dead in myself. And it was a very weird experience. Well, actually, she fancied you. She knew she fancied you and she'd had a drink as well. Let's add that in. She fancied you and then during the call also decided she fancied me. So it was you. She liked what she saw. Yes. And she had as much respect for the format as Dan at Croyd. Yes, she did. But without the pat catalog and the career to pack it up. Yes. Let's clock off now. But what fun it's been,

James. What fun it's been. I'll see you for series six. Can't wait to get Dan at Croyd on the other dentures episode. Hello, it's me, Amy Glendale. You might remember me from the best ever episode of Off Menu, where I spoke to my mum and asked her about seaweed on mashed potato and our relationship's never been the same since. And I am joined by me, Ian Smith. I would probably go bread. I'm not going to spoil it in case. Get him on, James and Ed. But we're here sneaking in to your podcast experience to tell you about a new podcast that we're doing. It's called Northern News. It's about all the news stories that we've missed out from the North because, look, we're two Northerners,

but we've been living in London for a long time. The new stories are funny. Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off and that's a new podcast called Northern News. We'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Glendale's mum on every episode. That's Northern News. When's it out, Ian? It's already out now, Amy. Is it? Yeah, get listening. There's probably a backlog. You've left it so late.